noun, masculine/bul.vaʁ/plural: boulevards
bulwark, rampart; boulevard, avenue; causeway
Inherited from Middle French boulevard, bollevart, boulevars, bolevers, bollewerc (“rampart”), from Middle High German bolewerc, bolwerc (modern German Bollwerk) or Middle Dutch bolwerk (“bulwark, bastion”). The use for a road is due to the fact that boulevards (e.g. in Paris) were built on the sites of razed bulwarks.